1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food products. More particularly, the present invention relates to dry culinary mixes for the provision of baked goods, namely cakes.
2. The Prior Art
The use of prepared mixes has received wide usage, particularly in home baking. These dry mixes provide convenience by eliminating the steps of ingredient selection, measurement and blending. To prepare cake batters from these dry mixes for baking, liquid materials such as water or milk, liquid shortening, eggs, etc. are added and the combination is then mixed to form a homogeneous mixture or batter and beaten to incorporate air. The resulting aerated batter is then typically transferred to a greased pan or tray and then baked to obtain finished cakes.
While these dry culinary mixes are convenient, it is apparent from the above description that the typical cake preparation procedure still contains several steps. It would be desirable then to eliminate one or more of these steps to provide products of even greater convenience. To this end, certain products have been marketed from time to time which attempt to provide greater convenience to the user. For example, one such product comprises previously hydrated batter. While somewhat more convenient, such products suffer from several disadvantages by virtue of the presence of water, e.g., limited shelf life, require special storage such as refrigeration, etc. These disadvantages have prevented these products from obtaining widespread acceptance.
Most art efforts then have been directed toward providing dry mixes for cakes and to improving both the use or characteristics of the dry mix or of the finished cake prepared therefrom. Dry mixes for cakes may be divided into two groups, namely, shortening-type mixes, e.g., layer cakes and non-shortening type mixes, e.g., angel food cakes. The present invention relates in particular to shortening-type cake mixes. Shortening-type cake mixes contain, as major ingredients, flour, sugar, and shortening. To these major constituents other ingredients such as emulsifiers, (generally incorporated into the shortening) starches, flavors, leavening, egg solids, non-fat milk solids may be added.
Greater convenience in using dry mixes can be provided by "full formulation" cake mixes. Full formulation mixes are distinguished from partial formulation mixes in that only water need be added for mixing and beating to form an aerated batter. Such full formulation mixes are commercially available and enjoy widespread acceptance particularly in the food service or commercial food industry. However, such dry mixes still require formation of an aerated batter and, typically, transference to a greased baking container.
Full formulation cake mixes, while convenient as regards time of mixing, nevertheless require the addition of prescribed quantities of water, blending at low speed to form a batter and subsequent aeration. Even greater convenience for the at-home preparation of layer cakes are provided by the "stir-in-the-pan" layer cake dry mixes. Typically, these are full formulation cake mixes which are specially formulated to be rapidly rehydratable and to be hand mixable. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,229, issued Sept. 26, 1972 to N. Norbsy et al.) Certain cake mixes of this type contain agglomerated all purpose wheat flour as a component to aid in the rapid hydration of the cake mix. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,309, issued Jan. 2, 1973 to G. E. Johnson et al.) each of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, even these mixes must still be hand stirred to form a batter. Moreover, these cake mixes are typically marketed in combination with specially coated containers so that batters can be prepared in the baking pan and thereafter baked without the cake sticking to the pan.
The present invention provides an improvement in full formulation culinary mixes. It has been surprisingly discovered that full formulation dry culinary mixes can be provided which do not require mixing to form a batter, nor require batter aeration, nor require greasing or coating the baking container. It has been surprisingly discovered that conventional full formulation mixes can be provided in a particular physical form referred to herein as "hyper agglomerates" or "granules" fabricated using particular agglomeration techniques which eliminate these previously recognized as essential preparation steps in the provision of a baked layer cake. The present mixes in the form of granules are additionally characterized by particle size, density, bulk porosity, initial rates of moisture absorption, and moisture content.
Of course, agglomeration is an old technique in the food art and a variety of food products are available in agglomerated form. Additionally, the food art is replete with agglomeration techniques. (See, for example, "Agglomeration Processes in Food Manufacture," by Nicholas Pintauro, Noyes Data Corporation, 1972.) Generally, food products are agglomerated to improve one or more of several product attributes. First, food products have been agglomerated to improve aesthetics. For example, soluble coffee powders have been agglomerated primarily for product aesthetics. Second, agglomeration has been more commonly used to provide products of improved material handling, e.g., pourabiity. Exemplary agglomerated products and methods include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,951, (issued Feb. 14, 1978 to R. G. Sargeant); U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,216, (issued Feb. 6, 1973 to Wuhmann et al.). Most commonly, very large numbers of food products have been agglomerated in the past to enhance their solubility or dispersion characteristics in liquids. These products include flour, non-fat dry milk solids, cocoa, sugars, eggs, etc. Exemplary products and methods of preparation are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,020 (issued May 5, 1979 to Bohrmann et al.): U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,582 (issued May 3, 1977 to J. Y. Hsu); U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,337 (issued Apr. 5, 1977 to J. Y. Hsu).
While these agglomerated products and methods have been used in the past for the provision of products exhibiting improved aesthetics, material handling and dispersability in liquids, it has been surprisingly discovered that agglomeration can be employed to provide the present "pour-and-bake" layer cake mixes. In particular, the present granules are generally larger in size than those of other food products and thus the present dry mixes are referred to herein as having been "hyper agglomerated."